Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, Episode 1: Tangled Up in Blue Review

Marvel’s interstellar, ragtag Guardians of the Galaxy prove a natural fit for the style of storytelling Telltale puts out these days - and it doesn’t take long into Episode 1: Tangled Up in Blue to recognize why. It manages to pull together some of the best elements of the comic books, the Guardians film adaptations, and Telltale’s ability to deploy well-paced and witty comedy with just enough interactivity to make you feel like a part of the action.

Like Telltale’s recent Batman game, this version of the Guardians doesn’t seem to be ripped directly from either the comics or the movies but is rather a respectful pastiche that skews heavily toward the latter. Rocket, Groot, and Drax are almost indistinguishable from their cinematic incarnations, while Peter Quill, Gamora, and Yondu (the blue guy with the big red mohawk-thing on his head) incorporate a lot more traits from their paper-and-ink equivalents. There are also lots of small, clever easter eggs to find for devoted comics fans, which I definitely appreciated.

The voice acting is applause-worthy, especially Nolan North as Rocket. Despite North’s voice being heard in just about every video game ever, he turns it into something so energetic and over the top here that I wouldn’t have known it was him if I hadn’t been told ahead of time. It's a spot-on replication of Bradley Cooper’s endearing and memorable performance from the film. Scott Porter’s version of Peter Quill/Star-Lord, the primary hero, is a little lighter on the quippy delivery than Chris Pratt but brings a relatable, emotional depth to the character that fills in the gaps.

The big, knock-down, drag-out showdown early in the episode is a major highlight.

Guardians’ gameplay doesn’t stray too far outside the Telltale formula we’ve come to expect, with only minor but welcome additions like Peter’s rocket boots allowing vertical exploration in some areas. There are semi-tedious detective segments where you wander around looking for the right thing to click on that make me long for the more difficult, puzzle-focused challenges of adventure games past. There are quippy, well-paced conversations with timed dialogue that affect various characters’ impressions of you. And then there are the extended quick-time events which, while they don’t involve any twists beyond hitting buttons really quickly at the right time, are some of the best Telltale has put together, presentation-wise. The big, knock-down, drag-out showdown with one of Marvel’s most iconic supervillains early in the episode is a major highlight. You get the joy of controlling each of the guardians and their unique abilities in an alternating fashion, becoming part of an exciting, well-choreographed brawl that looks like it could have come right off the pages of a comic.

When Drax’s fists aren’t flying, and Rocket isn’t pointing a firearm three times his size at anything that moves, Peter is forced to step in (with your guidance) to hold a group of big personalities together through a time that calls into question what their place in the galaxy really is. It’s impossible to keep everyone happy all the time, and some of your friends will be almost literally at each other’s throats by the episode’s end, forcing you to take a side. We’ll have to see how impactful these choices end up being in later episodes – it says Rocket will remember that I didn’t want to do his crazy, dumb plan, but it’s entirely possible everyone will be singing Kumbaya when the credits roll no matter how poor a leader I was. That would be unfortunate in terms of making our choices matter within the story, but for now at least Telltale has done a good job of making these decisions feel important and causing me plenty of enjoyable stress from trying to step up and do what a captain’s gotta do amidst all the intra-team drama.

The humor is thin on the ground at times, but when it lands, it really lands.

That mood is kept light by Guardians’ comic relief. The humor is thin on the ground at times, but when it lands, it really lands. There are at least a couple moments I laughed out loud at, and most of the dialogue writing is as clever and satisfying as the music choices, which delightfully echo the soundtrack of feelgood classic rock director James Gunn put together for the Guardians movies. Where the writing chops behind the episode really show, though, is in the more emotional and character-driven scenes. Intimate conversations between long-time friends experiencing big changes are authentic and moving. Particularly, a flashback scene between a young Peter and his mother felt all too real, injecting a grounded, well-executed B-plot about a kid who’s still not over losing a parent into the swashbuckling space opera.

One of my only other disappointments was how quickly it seemed like Tangled Up in Blue came and went. The bombastic, action-movie pacing worked well in some ways, but also prevented me from feeling like I really got to settle into and experience the world Telltale created as much as I did in the pilots for their take on Game of Thrones or any of the Walking Dead seasons. I look forward to returning and seeing the continued aftershocks of the multiple, major plot stingers (which are worth not spoiling for yourself!) as I chill with a likable, ably written and acted cast in future installments.

The Verdict

Alien: Isolation seemed like the perfect Alien game on paper, and for the first handful of hours it even seems to deliver on its promise on the strength of its outstanding art and sound that faithfully recreates the ambiance of the classic horror film. Instead, what was the Great Xenomorphic Hope ends in another disappointment for a license loaded with interactive-entertainment potential. It’s a shame that Isolation doesn’t track stats, because I’d be curious to know how many of its roughly 15-20 hours I spent hiding in lockers, staring at the motion tracker, and, most of all, how many hundreds (yes, hundreds) of times I died without a chance to save myself.It may seem strange to complain that a game’s too long, but when the genuine scares of being hunted by an unstoppable predator are so diluted by repetition and padding, Isolation’s epic length really does work against it. Someday, someone is going to make an incredible Alien video game that checks every box. But, sadly, Isolation is not it.